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International trade, through global supply chains, is central to global sustainable production and consumption. Redistribution of environmental resources impacts through international trade has become apparent in ecological research – and may have long-term design and planning implications for production and supply chain management. However, current trade and production accounting methods are still incapable of providing accurate and reliable results for policymakers and organisational decision makers to manage global and supply chain trade issues. In this study, a blockchain-based conceptual framework for embodied environmental resources accounting in trade is proposed to address global supply chain and trade issues. Framework design, benefits, and challenges are also discussed. Future research and linkage to theory are also provided. This study provides a strong systemic foundation for managing environmental resources at the nexus of international trade, sustainable production, and global supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The commercial determinants of health (CDoH) are attracting increased interest and are of great importance when discussing how trade affects health. Through a citation analysis of recent foundational CDoH documents (a Lancet paper series and an Oxford University textbook), we find that fully 71% of all citations reference the health sciences. The health sciences may be well suited to documenting the specific pathways of how commercial (by)products and practices harm human health. However, to operationalize upstream solutions for mitigating these harms, our citation analysis suggests that the field can engage political scientists, economists, sociologists, the trade law and business, as well as advocates in civil society and journalism, more so than it currently does. With CDoH explicitly referring to the interaction between commerce and health, CDoH researchers might be uniquely positioned to get health on the agenda of others, which requires that CDoH methods, datasets, evidence reviews, and proposed interventions are drawn from the widest possible range of sources.

Ireland has regulated for all packaged alcohol products to include a health warning that states that ‘there is a link between alcohol and fatal cancers’. This warning is being opposed in the World Trade Organization by 12 member states who are raising that the warning is an unnecessary barrier to trade. The World Health Organization is supporting Ireland. Countries should not oppose Ireland's warning which is defensible from legal and public health perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the early 2000s, border walls and fences have proliferated and become a global phenomenon with about a third of the countries having at least one wall or fence along its borders. Taking proper account for endogeneity, phasing-in effects and reverse causality, our gravity model for the years 1990–2017 (118 countries) finds a stronger trade-reducing impact of physical border protection structures ranging from 59% to 72%. This impact of physical border protection measures is non-monotonic: the immediate walls effect is insignificant but over the first 4 years after the creation of a wall, it starts to slash trade flows strongly and significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractHow do labor and environmental provisions (also known as non-trade issues) that are increasingly part of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) affect investment patterns within global value chains (GVCs)? In this article, we explore how the design of these provisions and the local regulatory environments of trading partners influence the geography of production. By employing a difference-in-difference analysis of quantitative data on the design of non-trade issues in 478 PTAs and mergers and acquisitions between 1948 and 2018, we assess the influence of labor and environmental provisions in PTAs on GVCs. Building on the legal and business studies literatures, we expect and empirically find that when countries join PTAs, enforceable non-trade clauses interact with domestic regulatory environments and induce changes in GVCs, especially in Global North hosts. Our findings provide nuance to our current understanding of the interconnections across trade agreement design, domestic regulations, and vertically integrated multinational production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence suggests that firms frequently over-comply with U.S. sanctions—a process also known as "de-risking." We argue that U.S. enforcement of its economic sanctions has contributed to this phenomenon to the extent that we can observe a systematic relationship between U.S. sanctions enforcement and third-party trade with U.S. sanction targets. Specifically, we theorize that, the greater the frequency and severity of sanctions enforcement penalties imposed by the U.S. against sanctions violators, the more third-party trade with U.S. sanction targets will decline. Analyzing data from 2003 to 2015, we find that U.S. sanctions enforcement actions correlate with significant declines in dyadic trade between third-party states and U.S. sanctions targets, even when enforcement actions target parties external to that dyad. This suggests that the U.S.'s enforcement of its sanctions magnifies the harm that U.S. sanctions inflict on target economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article theorizes and tests how different types of interstate conflict across borders affect trade between disputing parties and trade diversion with third parties. Building on theories of borders as institutions, we differentiate the effects of two types of international disputes – border disputes and escalated militarized disputes – and draw on 60 years of trade and conflict data to test the effects of these disputes on bilateral and third-party trade flows. We find that border disputes and militarized disputes each depress trade flows between the disputing countries. However, legal border disputes are associated with increased trade diversion with non-disputing countries, which may fully offset the forgone bilateral trade, whereas militarized disputes have the opposite effect. These results show that actors engaged in trade can offset bilateral trade losses from a border dispute by expanding trade with third parties not involved in the dispute, but the same cannot be said of offsetting the losses from militarized disputes. The fact that border disputes and militarized disputes have opposite effects on trade diversion highlights the importance of examining both the type of dispute and the type of trade flows that are affected when studying conflict and trade and evaluating the potentially pacifying incentives of international trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The consequences of economic globalization on electoral outcomes have recently become a prominent topic of research. We complement the emerging literature on this topic by studying whether changes in a subnational region's trade competitiveness affect the incumbent's vote share in that region. Using a novel dataset that relates subnational trade competitiveness to election results in 29 countries over a 20‐year period, we show that this is indeed the case. We also show that this effect is most pronounced for elections where the clarity of responsibility is high. Finally, we find mixed evidence for a moderating effect of incumbents' economic ideology as a moderator. These findings also contribute to the broader economic voting literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While conflict pervades virtually every aspect of society, there have been relatively few crossovers between Regional Science and Peace Science. This paper pays tribute to Walter Isard, pioneer of peace science research, and Kieran Donaghy, who has contributed to research on arms race dynamics and macroeconomic stability. We review studies that examine the impact of (i) trade on conflict, (ii) the economy on militarized disputes, and (iii) conflict on economic development. The analysis develops a structural equation model (SEM) to test the hypotheses simultaneously using the Correlates of War project data. Consistent with the liberal proposition, we found that the pacifying effect of trade is robust across alternative SEM specifications. Controlling for standard explanatory variables, the SEM estimates reveal that the indirect impact of economic development on conflict mediated by trade is statistically significant at the 0.1-percent level. Trade is, therefore, a critical intervening variable that transforms conflict-inducing economic expansion into a pacifying influence on militarized disputes. The spatial version of the SEM confirms that democracies do not attack each other. While trade does not appear to have a local spillover effect on conflict, proximity to neighboring democracies does lead to fewer conflicts. The final hypothesis argues that conflict affects national economic performance, which Donaghy refuted in his 1995 Conflict Management and Peace Science paper. Consistent with Donaghy's finding, the estimates reject the claim that conflict disrupts economic stability. The conclusion section discusses the implications for Kieran Donaghy's larger body of work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Italy is the only 'Big Four' European country and 'Quint' North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member ostensibly uninterested in the world's geopolitical and geoeconomic epicentre. However, a number of developments contradict the assumption that Rome overlooks the importance of the Indo-Pacific. By analysing official policies, naval deployments, new partnerships and evolving trajectories, this article reveals that Italy's strategic engagement with the Indo-Pacific is already significant and unfolding under three broad areas: (a) economy ; (b) security ; and (c) norms. It then assesses the benefits and risks of this developing foreign policy, and argues that the former outweigh the latter, a condition which is conducive to the establishment of an official Italian Indo-Pacific strategy. As the first scholarly work on the Italian role in the Indo-Pacific, this research makes a novel contribution to the literature on both Italian foreign policy and the Indo-Pacific security landscape, by investigating a complementary approach to that of existing Indo-Pacific strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What factors affect trade preferences? This article focuses on current‐account balances, which despite being de‐emphasized by mainstream economic theory, play an outsized role in political rhetoric regarding the costs and benefits of free trade. This article shows that individual preferences over trade openness reflect the mercantilist belief that when a country is running a current‐account deficit, trade reduces that country's aggregate employment prospects and diminishes its status on the world stage. This article shows that current‐account balances are an important driver of individual trade preferences. The theory's predictions are borne out by hierarchical analysis of cross‐national observational survey data, and further supported by the results of an original survey priming experiment in the United States. These results contribute to a growing literature emphasizing the effect of macroeconomic factors on preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free trade is important in the development of good economic institutions. One issue, in particular, is whether free trade agreements (FTA) can reduce corruption. Liberalizing trade while reducing corruption can reinforce moral behavior. We examine FTA between the United States and its Latin American trading partners. Free trade may provide incentives that could possibly result in countries becoming less corrupt over time. However, since 2004 the United States has included explicit anti-corruption clauses in its agreements. Using a difference-in-difference framework and a panel of 16 Latin American countries between 1991 and 2018, we test if trade agreements with the U.S. have any effect on corruption. We find that there is an increase in general corruption in countries after signing these trade agreements in comparison to countries that never signed one. These findings suggest that letting countries determine their own rules for reducing corruption might be better than dictating them through an agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the economic cohesion of two German areas, Hamburg and Saxony, in the 18th century, created through the inflow of Atlantic colonial groceries from the former to the latter. Combining different kinds of sources revealed the following. The trade flow from Hamburg to German lands began to shift from Prussia to Saxony in the middle of the 18th century. Within Saxony, the market was concentrated in two locations: the court city Dresden and proto-industrial district of Upper Lusatia. What made Saxony stand out were its liberal commercial policy and the development of rural trade. However, given that the growth of the market in Saxony was confined to geographically narrow zones, and that Prussia refused to be integrated with Hamburg, I concluded that the German market was distorted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the impact of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), trade openness, and remittances received on the novel misery index, a measure of macroeconomic dynamics, while considering heterogeneity in misery levels. It analyzed data from 1995 to 2022 across six economically uncomfortable East African Community (EAC) countries. Given the non-normal distribution of the data, a panel quantile regression model was employed to address both distributional and unobserved individual heterogeneity. The empirical findings indicated the weak negative effects of FDI in the lower misery index countries and stronger negative effects in the upper misery index countries. Trade openness shows stronger negative and statistically significant effects in lower misery countries, while its effects are negative but not significant in higher misery countries. Additionally, remittance inflows have a more pronounced positive impact in lower misery countries but show lesser positive effects in countries with higher misery levels. The results are robust even after accounting for additional controls, exclusion of regressors, outliers, and endogeneity issues, suggesting that foreign funds can enhance economic stability for those in misery. The study recommends promoting clean FDI in lower-meminous countries, beneficial trade agreements, and encouraging diaspora communities to advocate for productive remittances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fibula appeared in the Levant during the late second millennium bce and gradually replaced the toggle pin as the common accessory to fasten clothing. In this contribution, we trace the dissemination of fibulae in the southern Levant, pinpointing its chronology, the development of local variants and significant locales of consumption. The analysis of site-specific case studies suggests that the fibula was worn first by elites of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah as part of a new fashion, and became popular among the members of the colonial society under the Assyrian empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy transition and green innovation have appeared as new hopes for environmental impact due to human activity, which has destroyed biodiversity and increased environmental degradation. Therefore, developed and emerging economies are focusing on green innovation and energy transition to tackle the environmental impact. Thus, this study was initiated to provoke a meaningful relationship between energy transition, economic growth, trade, green innovation, and good governance to measure the role of concerning factors in achieving environmental sustainability. For this objective, dynamic econometric approaches such as cointegration, heteroskedastic OLS estimation using GMM (HOLS-GMM), AMG, and Driscoll–Kraay were implemented to estimate the Asian dataset between 1990 and 2022. The result indicates that concerning factors have a significant influence on environmental impact. The findings specify that a 1% rise in the energy transition and green innovation will influence the environment by 0.0517% and 3.051%, respectively. Further, AMG and Driscoll–Kraay validate the findings of HOLS-GMM. The robust tests indicate that the factors, which are concerning, significantly impact environmental sustainability. Consequently, the energy transition, trade, and green innovation significantly contribute to attaining ecological sustainability in the long term, and the Sustainable Development Theory prevails in the economy. Thus, innovative policy implications, including energy transition, green innovation, trade, and economic growth, are required to make Asia prominent in achieving environmental sustainability via implementing sustainable and green technologies and clean energy sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past three decades, there has been a significant increase in information and communication technology (ICT) investments around the world, resulting in a rise in the use of modern ICT packages. Sub‐Saharan African (SSA) countries, however, face different challenges. This study examines the relationship between ICT diffusion, foreign direct investment (FDI), trade openness, and economic globalization on inclusive growth for 48 SSA countries during 2005–2020. We use the modified generalized method of moments method for estimation. Empirical results reveal that ICT has a positive and significant influence on inclusive growth, while trade and economic globalization have a negative impact. FDI, on the other hand, has a favorable and considerable effect on inclusive growth. Inflation and vulnerable employment have negative impacts on inclusive growth, whereas social protection has a positive impact. From a policy standpoint, it is recommended that policymakers focus on enhancing ICT penetration in the region, particularly integrating ICT into the educational system to improve learning effectiveness and reduce research costs. Additionally, the interaction between economic globalization and ICT diffusion can enhance inclusive growth. Therefore, macroeconomic policies should promote ICT development, implement sound trade agreements, and attract capital inflows for inclusive economic growth. ICT diffusion is deemed both necessary and sufficient for SSA's advancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East Africa boasts one of the longest histories of humankind. From hominid origins to the present, people have roamed, interacted with one another, and influenced the environment in innumerable ways. To teach about the archaeology of East Africa is to engage with the deepest history of humankind, from Hominin evolution to historical archaeology and the archaeology of listening. Each topic has developed its own peculiar and complex analytical methodologies that require varied resources and degrees of intensity and investment in training and mentoring. This review discusses advances made over the past two decades in the research and dissemination of archaeological knowledge about East Africa. Beyond the major issues that stimulate scientific research and debates, what debates have been settled? Which emerging threats must East African archaeologists overcome to ensure a sustained practice of archaeology in the future? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important problems in economic development is the supply of stable amounts of renewable energy sources, including biomass. The production of biomass in Poland is not satisfactory; thus, this country has to import this product. As with other products, the trade of stable biomass includes both imports and exports and depends on the price and other characteristics of the market. This research aimed to assess the biomass trade in terms of energy and evaluate changes and trends in the import and export of biomass in Poland and its characteristics. Moreover, the export specialization index (SI index), Grubel–Lloyd index (IITk index) and foreign trade coverage index (CRK index) were evaluated. The considerations were based on the biomass trade in the context of environmental economics. This research found that the neighboring countries of Poland are the most important partners in both imports and exports. Germany and Lithuania are the most important countries in the trade of woody biomass. The export specialization index (SI index), in 2005–2008, was positive and growing, which means that exports exceeded imports; then, in 2009, there was a decline; from 2010 to 2013, the balance increased again, reaching significant positive values until 2019; and, in 2020, there was a decline. The Grubel–Lloyd index for the Polish wood and forestry industry showed a dynamic evolution in the analyzed period of 2005–2020, which reflects the industry's adaptive strategies in the face of global changes. Raw wood and veneer sheets are more volatile, which may indicate periodic shifts in the structure of foreign trade and the flexibility of producers to respond to international trends and demands. The CRK index in the years 2005–2020 presents an astonishing picture of changes in competitiveness and the ability to maintain the balance of imports and exports. The significant increase in the ratio of firewood and raw wood may reflect an increase in interest in renewable energy sources and the expansion of the industry into new markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the creation of state membership, or legal belonging, for European merchant groups residing in the Ottoman Empire during the seventeenth century. It focuses on the Venetian community of Istanbul and a jurisdictional conflict during 1613–1617 between Ottoman and European authorities over the legal belonging of European merchants. Given the absence of an empire-wide and uniform regime of citizenship and identification in the early modern Ottoman Empire, the classification as either "Venetian" or "Ottoman" was not self-evident but rather frequently a matter of controversy and diplomatic negotiations. This essay argues that an international body of rules and practices concerning state membership developed through interactions between Ottoman and European actors during recurring jurisdictional conflicts in the early modern period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The illegal trade in totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi) is causing adverse social, ecological, and economic impacts. This illegal activity is accelerating the overexploitation of totoaba and pushing the critically endangered vaquita (Phocoena sinus) closer to extinction. Despite extensive efforts to recover vaquita populations, scant attention has been given to the totoaba trade as an independent issue. As a result, data on the totoaba trade are limited, which hampers robust analyses and development of effective interventions to reduce illegal harvesting. We used a previously developed framework specifically designed to examine dynamics of illegal markets and guide measures to mitigate illegal use of totoaba. This framework separates markets into 3 analytical levels: characterization of participating actors (e.g., fishers, intermediaries); examination of how actors interact within the market (e.g., organization of supply chains); and assessment of the overall market dynamics that result from these interactions (e.g., factors determining price and quantity). We reviewed existing literature (108 initial articles) and interviewed key market actors, academics, and nongovernmental organization experts (14) to obtain data for this framework. Our findings offer an overview of the totoaba illegal market operation, highlighting intervention points (e.g., customs agents) and areas where additional information is required to decrease information gaps (e.g., US local market). We describe the structure and complexity of this market, emphasizing the influential role of organized crime in shaping its dynamics (e.g., controlling prices paid to fishers and stockpiling). By providing a systematic and in‐depth understanding of the market operation, we aimed to establish a benchmark for effective interventions and future research aimed at reducing uncertainties. Our results provide a crucial step toward addressing this critical issue and can help facilitate development of effective strategies to combat the illegal totoaba trade and promote biodiversity conservation more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trade represents a significant threat to many wild species and is often clandestine and poorly monitored. Information on which species are most prevalent in trade and potentially threatened by it therefore remains fragmentary. We used 7 global data sets on birds in trade to identify species or groups of species at particular risk and assessed the extent to which they were congruent in terms of the species recorded in trade. We used the frequency with which species were recorded in the data sets as the basis for a trade prevalence score that was applied to all bird species globally. Literature searches and questionnaire surveys were used to develop a list of species known to be heavily traded to validate the trade prevalence score. The score was modeled to identify significant predictors of trade. Although the data sets sampled different parts of the broad trade spectrum, congruence among them was statistically strong in all comparisons. Furthermore, the frequency with which species were recorded within data sets was positively correlated with their occurrence across data sets, indicating that the trade prevalence score captured information on trade volume. The trade prevalence score discriminated well between species identified from semi‐independent assessments as heavily or unsustainably traded and all other species. Globally, 45.1% of all bird species and 36.7% of globally threatened bird species had trade prevalence scores ≥1. Species listed in Appendices I or II of CITES, species with large geographical distributions, and nonpasserines tended to have high trade prevalence scores. Speciose orders with high mean trade prevalence scores included Falconiformes, Psittaciformes, Accipitriformes, Anseriformes, Bucerotiformes, and Strigiformes. Despite their low mean prevalence score, Passeriformes accounted for the highest overall number of traded species of any order but had low representation in CITES appendices. Geographical hotspots where large numbers of traded species co‐occur differed among passerines (Southeast Asia and Eurasia) and nonpasserines (central South America, sub‐Saharan Africa, and India). This first attempt to quantify and map the relative prevalence in trade of all bird species globally can be used to identify species and groups of species that may be at particular risk of harm from trade and can inform conservation and policy interventions to reduce its adverse impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The First Intermediate Period was a time of cultural innovation and social competition. The collapse of the monarchy and the cultural productions it sponsored paved the way for the emergence of new artistic and cultural expressions, better adapted to a context of fragile authorities and competing local powers. Warfare between rival regional polities became frequent, so tomb scenes and funerary stelae from Middle and Upper Egypt began depicting military actions and men posing as archers. Moreover, local authorities sought the support of local levies and fellow citizens to strengthen and legitimate their fragile rule. Therefore, many monuments and inscriptions celebrate successful command, effective leadership, and caring about one's city and its inhabitants. These conditions favoured the emergence of cultural innovations and social values aiming to express new identities. Depicting weapons, mainly bows, was crucial in this respect in some areas of Southern Egypt and echoed comparable phenomena occurring in neighbour regions like Nubia and the Levant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A well‐established literature documents the role of outsourcing and technological change in explaining the growing skills premium in the U.S. economy from the 1970s through the late 1990s. In the 1980s labor's share of income relative to capital also began to decline. These two trends continue through the great recession. Separate literatures identify different reasons for the change in the skills premium and the decline in labor's share. This article considers the explanations for these two phenomena in a unified framework. The analysis is based on U.S. manufacturing data from 2002 through 2017, a period when there were significant shifts in the rate of growth in outsourcing and market concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International demand for a small handful of commodities is a major driver of tropical deforestation and associated biodiversity loss. Previous commitments to reduce commodity‐driven deforestation have largely failed, yet there are currently various proposals in place globally, which aim to address the challenge of reducing overseas environmental impacts of supply chains.However, many of these are highly focused on the issue of deforestation alone. Given that biodiversity objectives are often cited alongside protection of forests, deforestation rates are therefore often used as a proxy for biodiversity loss. Assessments exploring deforestation risk linked to commodity supply chains, enabled by increasingly granular information on sourcing patterns, therefore potentially overlook other important biodiversity concerns.In response, we examine sourcing risks across three producer countries in South America for both forest loss and biodiversity for the example of soy production and trade, which has one of the largest embodied deforestation footprints in international supply chains. Using IUCN and Birdlife data, we create four simple biodiversity metrics to represent different aspects of species‐related biodiversity risk and link both these, and a forest loss metric representing soy driven deforestation, to sub‐national supply chain data to examine risks for the two largest importers from each producer country.We find relatively little evidence of convergence between forest loss and biodiversity metrics, as well as divergence between the four biodiversity indicators both for different importers and across landscapes. This suggests not only that forest loss alone is unlikely to be an adequate proxy for biodiversity, especially at larger spatial scales when considering risks across sourcing patterns, but also that further work is necessary to develop a deeper understanding of interactions between more complex measures of biodiversity and their consequences for informing supply chain activities. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Resumo: A demanda internacional por uma minoria de commodities é um dos principais fatores que impulsionam o desmatamento em regiões tropicais, resultando também na perda de biodiversidade associada à essas áreas. Compromissos anteriores para reduzir o desmatamento causado por commodities não foram, em sua grande parte, bem sucedidos, mas atualmente existem em todo mundo diversas propostas em andamento que enfretam o desafio de reduzir os impactos ambientais das cadeias internacionais de fornecimento.Muitos desses compromissos, no entanto, ainda abordam a redução do desmatamento somente. Dado que os objetivos de biodiversidade são frequentemente citados juntamente com a proteção das florestas, as taxas de desmatamento são frequentemente usadas como um substituto para a perda de biodiversidade. As avaliações que exploram somente o risco de desmatamento vinculado às cadeias de fornecimento de commodities, atualmente possibilitadas por uma melhoria no conhecimento dos padrões de abastecimento, podem ignorar outras preocupações importantes com a biodiversidade.Em resposta, examinamos os riscos associados às cadeias de fornecimento em três países produtores da América do Sul, tanto para a perda de florestas quanto biodiversidade, usando para isso a cadeia de produção e comércio da soja, que por sua vez figura como um dos líderes de desmatamento dentre as demais cadeias de fornecimento mundial. Usando dados da IUCN e da Birdlife, nós criamos quatro metricas simples para representar diferentes aspectos do risco de biodiversidade associada a espécies. Adicionamos tanto as métricas de biodiversidade quanto métricas de perda florestal por exapansão da soja nos mapeamentos subnacionais das cadeias de fornecimento afim de examinar os riscos para os dois maiores importadores em cada um dos países produtores analisados.Encontramos relativamente poucas evidências de convergência entre perda de floresta e métricas de biodiversidade, bem como divergência entre os quatro indicadores de biodiversidade, tanto para diferentes importadores quanto entre paisagens. Isso sugere que, não somente a perda de floresta por si só pode não ser um proxy adequado para a biodiversidade, especialmente em escalas espaciais maiores quando considerando os riscos nos padrões de abastecimento, mas também que mais trabalhos são necessários para desenvolver uma compreensão mais profunda das interações entre medidas mais complexas de biodiversidade e suas consequências para informar as atividades de produção nas cadeia de fornecimento. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the literature on financialized growth, two models are often presented as complementary but opposing: some countries drive their domestic demand through debt, while others grow on the basis of exports. In this research, we identify Sweden as a country that in the midst of the financial euphoria preceding 2008 combined these two models simultaneously. By identifying this "debt&export-led" growth model, we add richness and taxonomic complexity to the literature on financialized growth models. That said, this research contributes especially to the debate on the Swedish growth model, revealing a "hybrid" model that resulted from the interaction of two sets of factors: i) the presence of a successful exports sector, driven by a commensurate regulatory framework in a context of strong international demand; and ii) the manner in which financialization operated in Sweden, through a historic increase in private debt levels simultaneous with a partial dismantling of the welfare state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impact of financial stability on environmental degradation in Turkey, controlling for economic growth, renewable energy consumption, and primary energy consumption between 1990 and 2019. The study employs various statistical methodologies, including LS Unit Root, Fourier ARDL, DOLS, and FMOLS tests. The findings reveal an inverse relationship between financial stability and environmental degradation. Both economic growth and primary energy consumption are found to exacerbate environmental degradation. This study recommends that policymakers incorporate financial stability into policies aimed at reducing CO2 emissions. Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of investing in renewable energy infrastructure and the transportation sector to effectively mitigate environmental degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This thematic issue brings together a set of articles that empirically map the state of the ongoing geoeconomic turn in the global political economy from an international political economy (IPE) perspective. Changes in the modus operandi of the global political economy urge the development of new conceptual and theoretical tools to grasp the new geoeconomic reality of world affairs. At the same time, the contemporary study of geoeconomics remains theory-centred and focused on its security dimension, thereby underplaying the empirical nuances and variegated aspects of these developments. We therefore make the case for an empirically grounded study of concrete cases and instances of the geoeconomic turn, which can then deliver insights for further theory-building. Likewise, many aspects of the geoeconomic turn cannot be explained by security logics only, but have political economy roots that need to be brought to the foreground. Our thematic issue excavates these dynamics across four key challenges for the global economy: the role of states and firms in a geoeconomic world; global technological competition; the green transition; and implications of the geoeconomic turn for the non-Western world. Collectively, the contributions demonstrate that the geoeconomic turn is only starting to concretely (and partially) materialize and that these transformations, in many cases, tend to replicate existing power structures that prioritize capital(ist) interests related to profit-maximisation over societal interests, ecological sustainability, or social equity. We close by delineating prospects for further IPE research into the ongoing geoeconomic turn in the global political economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The so-called geoeconomic turn in global trade policy-making has changed the context in which the European Union positions itself as a trade actor. However, there is little scholarly attention paid to how the geoeconomic turn affects the EU's relations with developing countries. This article analyses the potential implications of new EU autonomous trade and investment instruments for developing countries, and how the EU has taken these consequences into account when designing them. We rely on a combination of desk research of official documents, trade data, and secondary literature complemented with expert interviews. We find that a trade-off between geoeconomic and development objectives is more pertinent in sustainability-related than in competitiveness- and security-oriented instruments. In these sustainability instruments, differential treatment of developing countries rarely features in the design-despite some proposals having been made. The geoeconomic turn has thus made it more difficult to align the different objectives in the EU's trade and investment policies, and development concerns are sometimes relegated to the background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: The COVID-19 pandemic caused mandated restrictions on movements and distancing of people with implications for meat supply chains. Despite the COVID restrictions, agricultural activities were permitted to continue as essential services in Australia. However, there were reported shortages of meat on the shelves of supermarkets and a general increase in the price of meat in Australia during the COVID period. Hence, there is a need to establish whether the restrictions affected upstream activities in Australia's beef supply chain. Aim: This study aims to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and confounding factors including rainfall and export bans on beef cattle trade and movement in Australia. Methods: Using annual data on beef cattle sold, purchased, transferred off-farm and transferred onto farms sourced from the database of the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences, a t -test analysis was conducted to establish the significant changes in cattle movement and trade for the pre-COVID (2014–2019) and COVID (2020–2022) periods. Additionally, a flexible least squares model augmented with a flexible generalised least squares model was used to assess the impact of confounding factors on cattle trade and movement. Key results: The results indicate no significant change in the proportion of beef cattle sold nationwide. Tasmania, New South Wales, and Western Australia (WA) recorded significant changes (1.4% increase, 3.6% increase, and 3.8% decrease, respectively) in the proportion of beef cattle purchased. For WA, these changes were localised to changes that occurred in WA Central and Southern Wheat Belt and WA Southwest Coastal regions. Moreover, rainfall did not significantly impact cattle trade but did affect cattle movements. The export ban only significantly impacted beef cattle sold in Queensland. Conclusions: Overall, the findings suggest that most regions in Australia did not experience significant changes in farm-level decisions regarding beef cattle movement and trade during the COVID period. Instead, minor adjustments were made to address the demand changes. Implications: The findings imply that adopted policies that facilitated the implementation of biosecurity bubbles and the movements of animal transport workers for breeding facilities and abattoirs during the COVID period were effective in normalising farm-level operations. Despite the COVID-19 restrictions, agricultural activities were permitted to continue as essential services in Australia. This study showed that most regions in Australia did not experience significant changes in farm-level decisions concerning beef cattle movement and trade during the COVID period. Instead, minor adjustments were made to address the demand changes. The findings show the effectiveness of government policies in response to a disease outbreak like COVID. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

First signs of headwinds to the global economy from geoeconomic fragmentation are emerging. This paper takes an overview on what is the current understanding of the economic effects of geoeconomic fragmentation. The estimated and modelled economic effects of geoeconomic fragmentation and geopolitics vary substantially. We need more research, standardized measures of geopolitical uncertainty, detailed data on protectionist measures and global value networks, plausible scenarios rooted in stylized facts and realistic models anchored in theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractWhile Pilot Free Trade Zones (PFTZs) have been promoted in China as a unilateral opening measure to boost economic growth amid deglobalization, their benefits in driving cities’ openness remain an underexplored research topic. This study aims to investigate the impact of PFTZs on cities’ trade performance. By employing a multi-region and multi-sector general equilibrium analytical model, the study reveals that the PFTZs enhance the overall level of openness across all cities in the country. Regarding the value-added sources, the PFTZs reduce the proportion of value-added originating from domestic regions and increase the proportion derived from international markets. Moreover, the PFTZs play a pivotal role in stimulating exports and strengthening the Chinese cities’ participation in the Global Value Chain (GVC). Meanwhile, the PFTZs enhance cities’ upstreamness in GVC while exerting an inhibitory effect on the downstreamness in GVC for most cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study attempts to examine the link between trade openness and sustainable human development (SHD) in 19 emerging economies. The study used the data for the period from 1996 to 2019. The study employed fixed-effect regression with Driscoll–Kraay standard error techniques robust to cross-section dependence. The study found the favorable impact of trade openness on sustainable development through sustainable human development. Trade openness affects sustainable human growth in many ways. It is a critical component that should not be ignored in sustainable development policies. Moreover, foreign direct investment, economic growth, and renewable energy consumption positively impact the sustainable human development. In contrast, innovations and institutional quality have an adverse impact on SHD. The study also provides policy suggestions for the emerging economies that will promote all the dimensions of sustainable development: economic, social, and environmental. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 pandemic and the 2021 military coup have dramatically affected the lives and livelihoods of communities across Myanmar. Border areas in the north of the country also suffered from the prolonged closure of the Chinese border due to PRC COVID containment measures. The city of Ruili, the main trading hub between the two countries, witnessed one of China's strictest series of lockdowns, and its border with Myanmar remained largely closed for over 1,000 days. This impacted not only cross‐border businesses, but also forced thousands of temporary migrants to return to Myanmar. To address the impacts of those multiple and overlapping crises, this paper investigates the case of Kachin amber: a gemstone extracted in Kachin State's Hukawng valley, in the northernmost part of the country, which has generated significant business with China since the early 2010s. Over the past decade, many in Kachin State became involved in the amber business, from mining to polishing and trading, and a large marketplace had been set up in the outskirts of Myitkyina to facilitate the trade with China. Based on interviews with miners and traders conducted in 2021–2022, in both Myitkyina and the Hukawng valley, this paper provides an initial assessment of the impact of COVID‐19, the coup, and border closure on the amber industry in Kachin State. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Emerging and re-emerging zoonoses are a growing threat to global health, with illegal wild animals trade and meat consumption as the main factors. Hence, the objective of this study is to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding the trade and consumption of wild animals in preventing zoonotic diseases among Sungai Lembing community, and its associations with sociodemographic characteristics. Materials and methods: A quantitative cross-sectional study with a convenience sampling method was conducted among 260 residents of Sungai Lembing from April-May 2022. A set of questionnaires in Malay was distributed and data collected were analysed using SPSS version 20. Results: Majority of the participants have encountered endangered species such as tapir, elephant, Sunda pangolin, and tiger. Most of the participants chose to leave deceased endangered species if they found them, but some reported eating the carcasses of wild animals. Age, marital status, employment, race, and duration of stay in Sungai Lembing are significantly associated with the knowledge level; race is significantly associated with the attitude level; and age, race, and exposure to endangered species are significantly associated with the practice level of wild animal trade and consumption in preventing zoonotic disease. Most participants agreed that eating wild animals can treat illnesses/diseases, although they are aware that diseases can be transmitted between animals and humans. Conclusion: Participants are having moderate knowledge (60.0%) and attitudes (52.2%) level towards wild animal trade and consumption in preventing zoonotic disease. Thus, additional education is required to enhance the community's understanding to prevent zoonotic diseases transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the impact of exchange rate volatility on exports and imports between South Africa and its main trading partners, namely the United States and China, across 22 import and export industries. The study employs the quantile autoregressive distributive lag (QARDL) model using quarterly data from the period spanning from 1994Q1 to 2022Q4. Our initial ARDL estimates establish that currency volatility does not significantly harm most trade sectors with both countries. In fact, many industries exhibit an insignificant or positive correlation with currency volatility. Nevertheless, upon re-estimating the regressions using the QARDL model, we uncover 'hidden cointegration' relationships existing at quantiles beyond the mean and median estimates, which are undetectable by traditional ARDL models. By considering these location-based asymmetries, we conclude that trade activities with China benefit more from exchange rate volatility compared to those with the United States. Overall, our findings imply that monetary authorities may not need to intervene in currency markets to stimulate trade with the top trading partners, as firms appear to be willing to bear the currency risks associated with the volatile Rand exchange rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Import and export controls ensure plant pests and diseases harmful to food production, the plants across our landscape, and ecosystem services, are not moved during trade. The 'International Plant Protection Convention' (IPPC) provides the framework for applying preventive measures where they are technically justified, and stipulates controls are not to be used as arbitrary restrictions on international trade. This article examines the aims of the Brexit trade agreements and reviews their alignment with the IPPC and other World Trade Organisation agreements. It argues that unjustified controls have been applied under the guise of protective requirements (contributing to EU-GB trade disruption) and identifies a divergence at the point of regulatory implementation of these laws and treaties by official bodies on both sides. The article reviews the position of Northern Ireland, which, to avoid a 'hard border' on the island of Ireland, remains under the European Union (EU)'s plant health (phytosanitary) regime. Reflecting on legislative options available to bring the application of plant health regulations into alignment with the IPPC (such as dispute resolution), these options remain unused. However, the possibility of utilising 'import authorisations' would leave neither Great Britain nor EU Member States exposed to any greater environmental risk than that under the single market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asymmetric timber trade between least-developed countries with large forest resources but backward processing industries and emerging economies has led to an uneven distribution of value in international timber commodity chains. Selling their raw timber with no domestic value added contributes little to socio-economic development and is associated with high rates of deforestation. The Lao PDR has served as a raw timber frontier for advanced timber industries in neighboring countries, leading to forest loss and related environmental problems. In response, since 2015, the Lao government has adopted drastic policy measures to end forest degradation and upgrade its timber industry (e.g., log export ban). Using teak as an example, our study provides empirical ex-post evidence on the effectiveness of state-imposed timber industry upgrading policies. The study relies on expert interviews with key policy actors at national and local levels, as well as an enterprise survey and cluster analysis conducted in Xayyabouly province. These drastic policies had far-reaching implications for the structure of the timber industry and the configuration of the timber value chain and rural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between populism and free trade has historically been a complex one. This article argues that populism affects trade not by expressing consistent economic preferences, but by operating as a discourse that articulates external policies as a struggle for popular recognition. We analyse trade discourses of Donald Trump and Brexiteers following their victories in the 2016 United States presidential election and the referendum on European Union membership in the United Kingdom. These populist movements expressed opposing trade preferences: Trumpism was identified with protectionism, while Brexiteers supported free trade. However, they both articulated trade as a way to regain popular sovereignty from elites and hostile outsiders. A discursive approach helps identify a common logic in how populists articulate foreign relations despite pursuing nominally opposing policies. While this populist logic pertains primarily to domestic mobilization, it has implications for the international order as well, as evidenced in the persistence of protectionist instincts in the US under President Biden and the acceptance of a 'global' trade policy outside the EU as the new frame of reference for UK external economic relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on rarely used primary sources and grounded in a broad historical framework, this article reveals the dynamic history of the Rubber Trust Company Limited in Shanghai and examines how its founders, the Kadoories, used unique colonial spaces to tap and store wealth across political borders. The article thereby not only provides an alternative perspective to the history of the Baghdadi Jews and their extensive networks across Asian port cities, but also reveals how the cross-border Kadoorie enterprises and the colonial tools they used ensured the family's survival in the face of Shanghai's political and economic transformation. By filling crucial gaps in scholarly knowledge on the Kadoories and their investments through their Rubber Trust Company Limited, this article advances our understanding of the business world in Shanghai from the 1910s to the 1940s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the transition from Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the concept of development has shifted from development to inclusive development. This motivates authors to include not only growth and inequality but also poverty, which will represent our concept of inclusive development. The literature on trade and its impact on inequality and poverty is ambiguous and heterogeneous, reflecting the need for more empirical analyses to enable effective policy targeting and implementation. The study examines the dynamic linkages between trade and the GIP triangle (economic growth, poverty, and inequality) in 18 emerging countries from 1991 to 2020. As a contribution to the existing literature, the study emphasizes direct and indirect linkages between trade and the GIP triangle. Using the panel ARDL approach for panel data, the study finds that trade promotes growth. Trade also helps in deteriorating income inequality, while it is not a factor of poverty eradication in emerging economies. The study recommends that to maximize the effectiveness of trade policies; they must be complementary and implemented in tandem with trade reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation is widely accepted as primary driver of economic growth in most of the developed as well as developing parts of the world. Recently, countries are more planned to achieve innovation-based competitiveness as it directly impacts productivity and enhances the immune to any form of economic turbulence and crisis. Along with that, an inflow of FDI enhances the knowledge spillover process via more R &D and expected to induce innovation for the local firms at a faster rate. With this in mind, the paper explores the impact of FDI on innovative performance of two giant Indian industries namely textile and chemical. Using a panel data technique for 9584 firms over a span of 15 years, the paper found a negative impact of inflow of FDI on innovation. Such findings further suggest that foreign entrants do not rely in Indian associates for innovation rather they rely on their country of origin or parent firm for the same. Our findings further indicate that inflow of FDI may not be the best source of knowledge spillover for Indian firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]